You Just Don't Give Up
by melchiorgabor
Summary: Gabriel has a need to help Natalie get over her drug habit. But how can he? Oneshot. Read and Review!


Hey guys, just a little break from my SA writings. It's only a oneshot, so don't think that I'm going to devote more time to a new project or something. This is something that I thought of while letting the muses come to me, plus, I was listening to NtN at the time, lol. Hope you guys like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Next to Normal( though if anyone would like to offer it to me...)

**You Just Don't Give Up**

He had to help her. Gabriel Goodman knew this to be true as he looked down at his sister, Natalie. He saw her picking up another joint and put it to her mouth. He knew that his sister was better then this. But what could he do? He was only a spirit, a ghost of sorts. There was really nothing he could do for her.

"Hey," a new voice said as he entered Natalie's room.

"Hey," Natalie actually managed to say in return. They shared a laugh. Gabriel was in shock. He had never seen this boy before. Who was he? What was he doing here? From the conversation that Gabriel could make out, his name was Henry, and he appeared to be Natalie's boyfriend. Gabriel was shocked at this, but even more shocked at the news that Henry had actually started Natalie's drug habit. Gabriel wanted to strangle Henry right then and there for this very reason. _But I can't, _Gabriel thought with a sigh. He watched the two talk and began to pick up on other observations, like how Natalie had only started with Henry, and had been doing even worse on her own accord. Gabriel had to give Henry a slight bit of credit for this. Then there was the fact that Henry was trying to get Natalie out of the rut she was in. Natalie refused all of Henry's pleas and they ended up arguing and Natalie asking Henry to leave.

Gabriel watched as Natalie began to cry as she held the joint up to her mouth once again and started her ritual from the beginning. Gabriel just kept looking at his slowly worsening and worsening sister as the ideas in his head began to turn. Thoughts about Henry, and about how Natalie's new 'boyfriend' could be used to his advantage. He heard a door slam and watched Henry leave the house. Gabriel took one last look at Natalie before leaving his sister and following his new friend home.

Henry really didn't live that far from Natalie; it was within walking distance. The house wasn't as big as the Goodman's, but Gabriel wasn't concerned about sleeping conditions. He wouldn't be resting his head at all tonight. He followed Henry through all of this nightly ritual and was relieved when Henry finally gat into the bed and began to doze off. Now came the part where Gabriel got to have fun. He knew that he could get into his mother's mind, but he had never tested other people. So with full force, he reached out his hadn't to Henry's head. Henry shivered as the hand passed right through him. Gabriel slumped. He didn't know what would happen if he did that, but he had expected more then a shiver.

So Gabriel just sat there throughout the entire night, looking at Henry and thinking of possibilities. He thought back to other ghost movies that he had seen with his family. One of them involved the ghost taking over a living person's body. Gabriel wasn't sure how to do that, but he figured that it was worth a shot. He looked at the sun shining through the window and watched as Henry lay there, not wanting the day to happen. Well, if there were a time to test it, it would be now. So with a deep breath, Gabriel plunged into Henry's daydreaming form.

* * *

Natalie Goodman sat at her usual spot and lit her first joint for the night as she looked up at the rising moon. All of the clouds were so clear, unlike the problems that were slowly becoming cloudier to her as the drug began to affect her brain, and she began to drift.

"Hey," a familiar voice said. Natalie turned to find Henry standing at her bedroom door.

"Hey," she said, turning back to the now risen moon. She was almost used to Henry appearing at times like this. If she didn't know any better, she might have thought that Henry was just a hallucination brought on by her bad habit. But her feelings for him, no matter how much she denied them, had to be real. They just had to be. For the sake of her sanity, they had to be. Not that her sanity looked like it was generically the best in the world at the moment.

"How are you, Natalie?" Henry asked, approaching her.

"Fine," she said, never looking away from the moon. She could hear Henry give a big sigh.

"Natalie, we need to talk-"

"Please, Henry, not tonight," Natalie said, cutting off another one of Henry's speeches. She had heard them so often that she could recite them as well as he could. Henry sat down beside his girlfriend.

"Natalie?" Natalie, for the first time, actually looked at Henry. His face couldn't be filled with more concern, more pain. "Tonight." Natalie thought it over. She didn't really want Henry to go on and on about something that she knew was wrong but she also knew that she couldn't give up. But she could tell how much Henry truly cared about her, and how he would be willing to do anything for her. He would stop smoking if it meant that she would. She knew that, but the dullness that surrounded her, the feeling that she wasn't truly attached to anything. It felt so wonderful. She felt like she could truly accomplish anything and that all of her baggage could just be set down at the front doorstep. She could never give it up. But she knew that Henry would never give up on her.

"Fine," she replied, dropping her joint butt into her makeshift ashtray commonly known as the ground. Henry gave her a smirk that Natalie had never seen before.

"Still using the ground? I thought you would have bought your own ashtray by now," he said, looking bemusedly down at the spot where the butt had landed.

"Yeah," Natalie said with a smile. "So, what did you want to say?"

"Well," Henry started, giving Natalie a puzzling look. "I just want to know why you have this need." He glanced at the butt. Natalie was surprised. He was usually knee deep into his usual rant by now. This was new, so new that she wasn't sure how to answer him.

"Because…" she said, looking for words. "Because it gives me an out."

"An out from what?" Henry asked, intrigued.

"Everything," Natalie said quietly. "It lets me escape to a world where all of my feelings, problems, and desires disappear. A world where I can breath. Where I don't have to take in the world as it is, but it's as if the real world is separate from me. And I like the feeling that it gives me. This feeling of freedom," Natalie looked over at Henry who was looking at his feet, probably trying to process all of this. Natalie didn't quite understand it herself.

"I don't see why you would want to be separate from the world," Henry said. Natalie looked at him in surprise. "Being part of the world must be a wonderful experience. To take part in everyone is feeling and not just sit on the sidelines and listen to all of these emotions coursing through everyone's faces, but to actually experience them. It must be unbelievable." Natalie stared at Henry, trying to figure out what he had meant by this.

"What would you know about being separate from the world? You nearly pride yourself on knowing the inner workings of it." Henry looked at her and she saw something in his eyes that was not there before.

"What if I told you that I wasn't Henry?" Natalie looked at the boy sitting beside her up and down. He had to be Henry. There's no one else he could be.

"Henry stop being an idiot," Natalie said, trying to shrug this feeling off that Henry might just be telling the truth.

"No, really," Henry said, "Are you saying that you've never felt a presence with you when you were sitting in your bed at night? A presence that told you that you were safe, that he would keep you safe until the morning comes?"

Natalie stared at this strange man in bewilderment. "Who are you?"

The man flashed Natalie another smirk. "I'm your brother." Natalie looked at the man's face, looked right into his eyes. She could see something familiar about them. They looked exactly like her mother's except for there was a little more hope in them, a little faith that her mother never seemed to have.

"Gabriel?"

His smirk broke into a smile. "That's me. Natalie, I've been worried about your addiction for a while, and I just wanted to tell you that you really should appreciate everything that you have. Everything will turn out fine, you just need to have a little hope." Gabriel stood and began walking back to Natalie's door. Natalie's eyes followed him as he turned as the door and gave her another smirk. "And don't give up on this guy either. He's OK for a pothead, but I guess you already knew that." Natalie returned his smile as he continued down the hallway.

Natalie thought about what Gabriel had said. She thought about what that would mean and what she would have to do. She knew that he was right but…No, no buts. If he really want through whatever he did just to come and tell her this, then it must have been important. She at least had to give it her best try.

* * *

Gabriel looked at his sister. She was sleeping as soundly as she had the night before, and the night before that. No tossing or turning, no more nightmares like she had while she was going through her withdrawal. He knew that she would be fine, and as he looked at his sister, he knew that she didn't need him anymore. He smiled as he looked up at the stars in the night sky, seeing all of his hopes for Natalie finally being fulfilled.

* * *

Well, that's it. If you have any comments _at all_. **_Please_** make me aware of them. :)


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